Back when Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel had been burgeoning beat-makers, the New York natives spent lots of time digging through crates of cheap vinyl. Eventually, they became the indie dance duo Holy Ghost! And their interest became a musical education that, in the end, led them to disco. Today (June 21), Holy Ghost! Releases Work, a disco-inflected, synthpop odyssey, and the duo’s first full-duration LP considering that 2013.
While lengthy associated with DFA, this time across the institution is dropping the album through West End Records. Work is the first complete-duration launch of new music released on West End in more than 30 years. West End Records became important in developing the overdue ‘70s and early ‘80s disco sound that would cross on to inform residence tracks.
Founded through Mel Cheren, who additionally helped launch the mythical New York membership Paradise Garage, the label’s iconic releases encompass the 1980 unmarried “Is It All Over My Face,” from Arthur Russell’s assignment Loose Joints, and Taana Gardner’s 1981 jam “Heartbeat,” which had been remixed using pioneering DJ Larry Levan that identical year. West End’s history is also marked by activism and tragedy. In the early years of the AIDS crisis, Cheren, who died in 2007, lent an area in his building to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an agency assisting people with the sickness. Cheren himself later founded the charity 24 Hours to Life and became a supporter of the sexual fitness agency LIfeBeat.
To honor the label’s records, Holy Ghost! Is donating a part of the proceeds from 12″ vinyl sales of “Anxious,” the primary single off Work launched in late 2018, to Gay Men’s Health Crisis and LifeBeat. On June 27, the headline of LIFEbeat’s NYC Pride Week benefits at the Ace Hotel. Here, Millhiser and Frankel communicate about Work and the fun of liberating it through an iconic label. Billboard Dance: Tell me how you ended up freeing the brand new album via West End Records. Millhiser: It befell very without difficulty.
We knew we were not going to do it with DFA. The album became transferring along. We desired to get a jump. It has been so long because we have been in a role wherein we needed to determine how we’re going to release it because we had been at DFA to see you later. It became easy to move quickly and rapidly at DFA. [We were considering] the dream label to see a Holy Ghost report on [and came up with] West End.
BMG owns West End. We had a friend at BMG. We asked, ‘What are you guys doing with West End? Would you be interested in possibly setting out a Holy Ghost? Record?’ Proper away, they stated yes. We did the unmarried “Anxious,” and it turned into truely smooth. We, without a doubt, preferred operating with them there. It’s a label and a catalog with remarkable records and one we sense in reality attached to
